Apartment Look

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Two children, ages 3 and 5 years old, died in an overnight fire just before 2:30 a.m. at the Colonial Gardens Apartments in Overland Park. Seven others, including their mother, were injured. The family confirmed that the children are five-year-old Henry Mendoza-Carter Jr. and three-year-old Alexis Mendoza-Carter. Alexis and Henry Mendoza-Carter were tragically killed in an apartment fire early Tuesday morning in Overland Park, Kansas. The young girl and her older brother apparently became trapped in a multi-unit fire in the 8800 block of Broadmoor. The fire led some residents to throw themselves out windows and caused others to brave burning staircases to reach safety. Crews from the Overland Park and Leawood Fire Departments responded and soon called a second alarm when they learned there were people trapped inside . When crews arrived, they saw heavy smoke and fire coming from the front and back of the two- story apartment building . Paramedics treated b...

CLOSE Video and audio during the night of November 28, 2016. Angela Gosnell/News Sentinel Buy Photo Fire erupts on both side of Highway 441 near The Spur on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016. (Photo: Jessica Tezak, Special to the News Sentinel) Buy Photo The rain never came in time. Records released this week show authorities battling the deadly Sevier County wildfires looked to an expected downpour that came too late for salvation as crews struggled in a desperate tug-of-war with skyscraper-sized flames the night of Nov. 28, 2016. As the blaze approached the city limits, authorities knew the rain wouldn't arrive for another 12 hours. "Rain may not be in Gatlinburg until 4 a.m.," reads a 5:30 p.m. entry on notes kept by staff inside the incident command center . “Rain may not be in Gatlinburg until 4 a.m.” a 5:30 p.m. entry on notes kept by staff inside the incident command center Authorities didn't order a citywide evacuation for another three hours -- and had no effective wa...

Fruitland Area Fire Protection District /Facebook)" title="(Source: Fruitland Area Fire Protection District /Facebook)" width="180" style="border: 0px;" /> (Source: Fruitland Area Fire Protection District /Facebook) JACKSON, MO (KFVS) - According to the Fruitland Area Fire Protection District , firefighters were called to the scene of an apartment fire on Woodland Drive in Jackson, Missouri on Tuesday, Aug. 15. Crews got the call around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday and say flames were already showing when they arrived. Back up was then requested. Crews were able to evacuate the apartment and no one was injured. There were four units in the building but the fire was contained to just one. The other three units have smoke damage. Fruitland officials said it was a first alarm structure fire . Jackson Fire and Rescue and the Gordonville Fire Department were on the scene, as well. The cause of the fire is unknown and remains under investigation. Download the K...

Advocates for a code change that would allow taller heavy-timber frames are buoyed by the good performance of mass-timber structures in the first U.S. fire tests on full- scale furnished apartments . “The tests went as expected,” says Stephen DiGiovanni, fire protection engineer for Nevada’s Clark County Dept . of Building and Fire Protection . DiGiovanni, also chairman of the International Code Council ’s 17- member ad hoc committee for tall wood buildings , plans to use the final test report to help justify a code change that would allow  wood frames as tall as 180 ft, depending on building design and use. The report is due out before Jan. 8, the deadline for code-change proposals for the 2021 edition of the International Building Code . IBC currently limits the height of heavy-timber structures to 85 ft. Under the likely code-change proposal, the maximum height for mass timber, fully protected with noncombustible sheathing, would be 180 ft. A height of 120 ft would be allowed fo...

GUILDERLAND — Early Sunday morning, software programmer Premjeet Sougrakpam was at home, sleeping in his Regency Park apartment , as were his wife, her mother, and the couple’s two sons — one of them three years old and the other born just five days earlier.  They were awakened by a loud bang at about 4:30 a.m. When they ran to a back window to see if something was wrong, they saw flames outside, near their patio. Sougrakpam reached for a phone and called 911, while the women each grabbed one of the children. They made their way outside, where residents from the other nearby apartments were also gathering.  “I came barefooted, just the pajama, and the phone I had used to dial 911,” said Sougrakpam.  There was no time to get anything else, not even car keys or passports, he said. The Sougrakpams lived in Building 1 of the complex at 2120 Western Ave. There were six apartments in their building. Sougrakpam told The Enterprise that he is currently in a local hotel; his family — includin...

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Two children are dead and six others were injured in an early morning apartment fire Tuesday . It was around 2:30 a.m. when the fire broke out at  Colonial Gardens Apartment Complex near 88th and Broadmoor Street. The fire quickly became a two-alarm fire when responding units heard reports that people were trapped. The first units on the scene were greeted by several burn patients along with heavy smoke and fire coming from the front and back of the two- story apartment building . Paramedics began treating the burn patients, while firefighters began an aggressive search and fire attack. Once inside, firefighters found two children dead. Their names and ages have not yet been released. Their mother was taken to the hospital with minor burns and smoke inhalation. In addition to the children's mother, two men who jumped from the top floor and sustained severe burns and injuries, were taken to the hospital along with one more who had minor burns. Two firefigh...

Photo courtesy Overland Park Fire Department ." width="714" height="476" class="size-full wp-image-65162" /> Photo courtesy Overland Park Fire Department . A two-alarm fire in the 8800 block of Broadmoor Street in northern Overland Park took the lives of two children early Tuesday morning . Crews from the Overland Park Fire Department , Leawood Fire Department and Consolidated Fire District No. 2 responded to a call at the Colonial Gardens Apartments around 2:30 a.m. this morning and found heavy smoke and flames pouring from the front and back of a two-story building. Several burn victims were already outside the structure, but firefighters got word that others were trapped inside the structure. Rescue crews began an aggressive search inside the building while others worked to control and quell the flames. During the search, firefighters found two children dead inside the building. Their names and ages have not been released. Paramedics tre...

Nearly every day, Kristen Bass travels to the Park Meridian apartments in Northgate, seeking reassurance that important pieces of her life are still intact. The 30- unit apartment building where she lived for 18 months was badly damaged in an Aug. 5 fire, leaving Bass and about 70 other tenants searching for new homes while the insurance company documents the extent of the damage, and the landlord makes plans for the building’s demolition. Bass is certain that irreplaceable belongings survived the fire — her family photos, childhood mementos, and a box of her late sister’s belongings that she can’t talk about without breaking into tears. But she can’t retrieve them from the fenced and partially boarded-up building because the landlord says it’s not safe to let her back inside. Most Read Stories Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks. “We are so grateful no one got hurt,’’ building owner A. Mark Vanderveen said in an interview Monday. “The last thing I want to do is put someone ...

By Caroline Moses - bio | email BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Baton Rouge has seen more than 30 arsons in the last month. One of them happened early Wednesday morning at the Brandywine condominiums on Darryl Drive near Choctaw. It's the third time in the last few months that one complex has caught fire. "I want to know where that started from...where all this fire started from," says Christopher James, a long- time Brandywine resident . "We're concerned about this and we're doing everything we can to stop it. We need the community behind us," says Howard Ward with the Baton Rouge Fire Department . Just last month, another suspected arson fire burned an entire complex of 16 condominiums at Brandywine. People were still living in them. "It's just sad. You're not safe in a place you call home," said Maria Tyler. The 10-unit complex that burned Wednesday morning was vacant because of a mechanical fire a few months earlier and the electricity...

Update: West Nile Virus SOUTH WINDSOR — The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station announced that mosquitoes trapped in 12 towns have tested positive for West Nile virus so far this season. The towns include: Branford, Glastonbury, Greenwich, North Branford, North Stonington, Orange, Plainfield, South Windsor, Stamford, Stratford, West Haven, and Westport. To reduce the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes residents should: Minimize time spent outdoors between dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active; be sure door and window screens are tight-fitting and in good repair; wear shoes, socks, long pants, and a long-sleeved shirt when outdoors for long periods of time, or when mosquitoes are more active; clothing should be light colored and made of tightly woven materials that keep mosquitoes away from the skin; use mosquito netting when sleeping outdoors or in an unscreened structure and to protect small babies when outdoors; consider the use of mosquito repellent , accord...